The Effect of Ozone Treatment on the Physicochemical Properties and Biocompatibility of Electrospun Poly(ε)caprolactone Scaffolds

Abstract

Ozonation has been proved as a viable surface modification technique providing certain properties to the scaffolds that are essential in tissue engineering. However, the ozone (O3) treatment of PCL scaffolds in aqueous environments has not yet been presented. O3 treatment performed in aqueous environments is more effective compared with traditional, executed in ambient air treatment due to more abundant production of hydroxyl radicals (•OH) within the O3 reaction with water molecules. During interaction with •OH, the scaffold acquires functional groups which improve wettability properties and encapsulate growth factors. In this study, a poly(ε)caprolactone (PCL) scaffold was fabricated using solution electrospinning and was subsequently ozonated in a water reactor. The O3 treatment resulted in the expected occurrence of oxygen-containing functional groups, which improved scaffold wettability by almost 27% and enhanced cell proliferation for up to 14 days. The PCL scaffold was able to withhold 120 min of O3 treatment, maintaining fibrous morphology and mechanical properties.

Cartilage regeneration using improved surface electrospun bilayer polycaprolactone scaffolds loaded with transforming growth factor-beta 3 and rabbit muscle-derived stem cells

“…Ozone treatment has been already analyzed and shown to impact cell adhesion and proliferation ( Rediguieri et al, 2017 ; Samsudin et al, 2018 ). In addition, this process can improve attachment of growth factors such as insulin growth factor-1 ( Dabasinskaite et al, 2021 ) necessary to increase required differentiation toward chondrocytes, while the present study did not show an obvious impact on better TGFβ3 attachment than non-ozonated scaffolds. As we used rMDSCs, we selected TGFβ3 as the additional factor which is a confirmed factor in stimulating stem cells to undergo the chondrogenesis process ( Grafe et al, 2018 ; Music et al, 2020 ).…”

“…The subchondral layer polymer solution was prepared similarly to the chondral layer, except that hydroxyapatite (HA, <15 µm particle size, CAS: 1306-06-5) powder was added. The fabrication procedure of both layers and electrospinning and ozonation techniques (treatment with O 3 ) were described previously ( Dabasinskaite et al, 2021 ; Dabasinskaite et al, 2022 ). PCL pellets and CA powder (2:1, w/w) were dissolved in acetone and N.N-dimethylformamide mixture at 2:3 (v/v) to obtain 30% (w/v) polymer solution.…”

Functionalized Electrospun Scaffold–Human-Muscle-Derived Stem Cell Construct Promotes In Vivo Neocartilage Formation

“…Poly(e-caprolactone) (PCL) scaffolds were prepared as described previously [27]. Briefly, the scaffolds were fabricated of PCL fibers with the addition of cellulose acetate using the custom-made solution cryo-electrospinning setup [28]. The scaffolds were posttreated to convert cellulose acetate to cellulose and to introduce functional groups for the binding of the growth factor [27].…”